First Look: Seasonic X-Series.

80 Plus Gold has already arrived with OCZ's Z-series and Corsair's HX-750/850 (which is classed as Silver, but are often tested to conform to Gold spec), and late last month we received Seasonic's latest X-Series PSU that's rated to be just as efficient.

For those unknowing of what 80Plus Gold actually means, it's currently the highest rating for the 80Plus program that measures real world efficiency of PSUs. The Gold standard requires over 87 per cent efficiency at 20 and 100 per cent loads, and 90 per cent at 50 per cent load. While all the time maintaining a 90 per cent power factor correction too.

We first saw the Seasonic X-Series in the summer as a pre-production unit and not much has changed: the predominantly black design with gold, features on a small 16x15x8.5cm steel box: one of the more modest-sized performance PSUs we've seen.

The restrained styling is typical of Seasonic, although the fan-grill has changed to a stamped hexagon design instead of the usual grill. We're not huge fans of the big stickers on either-side, though: they don't exactly shout brand quality.

Inside the box, the PSU comes in a swanky mock-velvet bag, with an extremely floppy paper manual (I kid not), and a Velcro bag to store all the modular cables.

The biggest change is the fully modular design: that means that even the ATX cable isn't attached by default. Why? Because Seasonic claims this is part of an overall 'Green' strategy of producing less waste. Seasonic sees its highly efficient PSUs as lasting someone for several years, but it expects the connectors used in a PC will change within the next five years. This is in line with other PSU manufacturers we've spoken to, as the focus is increasingly on 12V only when it comes to PCs.

Perhaps in a couple of year's time, the 24-pin main ATC power connector will be ditched for a larger or smaller connector. With that in mind, Seasonic says it's more environmentally friendly to just issue new connectors for new standards - whatever that may be - rather than require its customers to buy a whole new PSU. We think talking about the money saved for that customer might be a more persuasive marketing message, but each to their own.

The fully modular internal-panel

Having been around for over 30 years, we expect Seasonic will still be here to issue those connectors if/when the change happens. However, that still doesn't address the niggling concerns over

How Seasonic intends to address the customer requests

What, if any, new standard is incompatible with the pin-out of the PSU?

What if a new standard requires a new technology inside the PSU, which means we have/want to buy a new one anyway?

Most of us like shiny new toys, rather than amending old hardware for compatibility.

These concerns aside, the modular cable quality is very good, with well sized braid and glued in, heatshrunk sealed ends. The connectors are labelled by size, not colour though. We complained to Seasonic that while it looks inoffensive, having everything black makes it extremely difficult to find the right socket in an already dark case.

Click to enlarge

Even if you're not interested in the long term upgrading prospects, Seasonic still has a few other Aces up its sleeves.

How green are green products? We evaluate the benefits, or lack of them, in new "low power" and "energy efficient" hardware to see what makes the biggest difference to the power drawn from your wall socket.

A small selection of power supplies in the most popular wattage range that were seen in Custom PC magazine's latest PSU labs test. There's a lot more to take into consideration when selecting a PSU than just a paint job and a power output rating. Read on to find out more.

We took a trip to DongGuan, China, to not only take a nose around Seasonic's Factory, but understand the details of its engineering philosophy too. Want to know where your power supplies come from? Take a look to find out.

We've rounded up and finalised our opinions of the Seasonic M12D, and now it's time for the overall performance results. Does Seasonic's champion 80Plus Silver model hit the spot to overrule the Antec Signature, Enermax Revolution 85+ and Cooler Master UCP 900W?

In-Win sent us its camo styled, CWT built modular PSU and it certainly does quite a bit to differentiate itself in the market. We tested all 750 watts of the Commander to see if In-Win is worthy of your consideration in the PSU realm.

Corsair has expanded its popular PSU range with a high-end 750W model that fits into the new TX-series. It's made by a different OEM to the HX-series' everyone is so fond of, so has Corsair managed to eke out the same level of quality? Let's find out...